"La Planète Sauvage", the Scottish coast by bike

July 2021: I've been touring the UK with a friend for three months now, and I want to complete the journey by covering part of Scotland's famous North Coast 500. Any trip to Scotland is an adventure. In July, the weather is usually quite mild, but it's the season of the "midges": those little flies that sting and attack in swarms.

🛣 On the road

DAY 1 🚲 Inverness to Loch Fleet 🚲

92 km

We leave Inverness after a quick visit to the Velocity Cafe & Bike Workshop: there we buy chains to change ours, quite tired, and enjoy some cakes. I discuss our itinerary with the mechanic, explaining that after the NC 500, we plan to visit the Isle of Skye. He tells me that I can pass through, but that it's very touristy in places, and recommends that we linger instead on the Isles of Mull and Arran. Nothing beats the advice of local .

We change our chains in 10 minutes (I recommend to all travelers a Wippermann Connex chain link, which can be installed and dismantled by hand and used on several successive chains).

Let's go! Scotland is beautiful, sparsely populated and, above all, a paradise for campers. Wild camping is totally legal, and you can pitch your tent wherever you like, as long as it's not in the middle of a protected historic site or right in front of someone's house. And yes, you can even make **campfires**!

We've got a bit of wind at our backs, so we're making good progress. Near Loch Fleet, we put the bikes down and prepare dinner. The wind is a blessing tonight, as the midges can't stand it. Serves them right, ahah! Ah finally, we can stroll outside peacefully until sunset, what happiness!

DAY 2 🚲 from Loch Fleet to Kildonan 🚲

49 km

This morning, we agree not to go to John O'Groats, the north-eastern tip of Scotland. Several people have told us that the scenery isn't particularly interesting there. We'd rather cover less distance and take our time.

So we set off on the A897. In the UK, "A" roads are national roads. I imagine the cars whizzing past me every 10 seconds and wonder if this is a good idea. It turns out that many of Scotland's main roads are actually so narrow that there isn't enough room for two cars to pass each other, so we're very quiet.

DAY 3 🚲 from Kildonan to Druimbasbie 🚲

64 km

We follow the meandering River Halladale to the north coast. At Strathy, we take a quick but effective sea bath. It's summer, but it's Scottish summer, aglagla 🥶.

The road that really runs along the coast is busier and attracts cars and caravans. It starts to rain in torrents. On the bright side, the second thing midges don't like is water! So we have a wet but quiet dinner near a peat bog (a wetland colonized by vegetation in a water-saturated environment), where we've pitched our tent.

DAY 4 🚲 from Druimbasbie to Farrmheall 🚲

95 km

The scenery is breathtaking , but we don't stop much and we're carburated. The reason: the midges are back!!!! When we do take a break, we have four minutes watch in hand before a few of them arrive and round up their girlfriends. The bites are actually quite small, and individually they do little damage. The worry is to find yourself in the middle of a cloud of zoniness and microaggressions of the skin. It's enough to drive you crazy 😤.

Tonight, like most Scottish evenings, when we dive into the two-person tent (because it's the only way to avoid getting the girlfriends in), the first step is to crush the midges that have crept in, and the second is this dialogue, with a few variations:

• "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to talk to you badly, I know you were trying to pitch the tent quickly, I couldn't take being stung anymore".

• "I'm sorry too, I couldn't guess that your shoelace had wrapped around a branch when I told you to hurry up and zip up the door".

DAY 4 🚲 from Farrmheall to Clashnessie Bay 🚲

67 km

Every day, we're a little more surprised by the elevation gain. The wind has something to do with it, but above all, it's hard to cover several kilometers on flat ground.

We buy supplies in tiny grocery stores with strange and surprisingly poorly thought-out selections for campers.

Tonight, choosing a bivouac spot is particularly difficult, as the magnificent little rocky bays rarely have enough grass to pitch a tent...

DAY 5 🚲 from Clashnessie Bay to Iverlael Gorge 🚲

89 km

The wind is back and the midges are finally out of sight. An early-morning dip in the sea acts as a shower (it's been a while). The sky is blue in the morning, stormy in the afternoon. The same landscape can look like an arid steppe or an infinite swamp.

In any case, the view is always dramatic and it's really hard to take a bad photo.

We refuel as planned at Ullapool for a bivouac next to a waterfall, very bucolic.

DAY 5 🚲 from Iverlael Gorge to Gairloch 🚲

69 km

We hop from bay to bay. The 'dream bivouac spot' seems to be at every turn. We do a little shopping at Gairloch, where a community café catches our eye. We end up spending hours there, trying out all the chairs, ordering everything on the menu, and recharging all our electronic devices.

The dynamo in the hub of my front wheel certainly allows us to space out stops like this as I recharge my external battery while riding, but I either don't pedal long enough or fast enough each day to be truly self-sufficient.

DAY 6 🚲 from Gairloch to Skye 🚲

103 km

My friend isn't waking up in great shape. Too bad, because today we're supposed to climb the mythical Bealach Na Ba, a 9km climb with a gradient averaging 7%.

I'm sure it's beautiful, but there's no point in pushing someone who's not feeling it and I don't want to make him worse. So we take a more flat road (but not too flat either), not forgetting to eat a gargantuan lunch at the **Whistle Stop Cafe **in Kinlochewe to keep our strength up.

Tonight, we just cross the bridge to the Isle of Skye, leaving the** NC 500 **and ready for new adventures.

Final lap

Scotland promises fantastic scenery and immense freedom . It is also, let's be honest, the promise of a climate uncertain and often not very clement. However, NC 500 is dotted with some pretty nice campsites, hotels and B&Bs. With a bit of travel planning, it's possible to spend much easier nights than we did 😁. Good luck my friends!